Hawker stalls still unfinished
“We are still waiting for the GTM to let us know when we can start using the stalls. They are unfinished. I believe they will finish them soon as the elections are around the corner,”said one hawker, Mr James Nkosi.
BURGERSFORT – The hawkers stalls that were promised to the local street vendors and informal traders seem to be taking longer to complete than expected.
In 2013 the Greater Tubatse Municipality (GTM) promised to built stalls for informal traders in an effort to keep the town clean.
But two years later, unfinished stalls are still seen in town, half built and some look rusty. It seems like the dream of hawkers of selling their goods in decent stalls, is still far from being reached.
“We are still waiting for the GTM to let us know when we can start using the stalls. They are unfinished. I believe they will finish them soon as the elections are around the corner,”said one hawker, Mr James Nkosi.
In an article published in Steelburger/Lydenburg News on July 2013, the GTM revealed through their spokesman, Mr Thabiso Mokoena, that they have initiated a project whereby hawkers would abide by the rules.
“The hawkers with permits will receive preference for the new stalls that will be built. The municipality has already received 980 applications for permits. Of those, 244 have been granted. Altogether 400 stalls will be built in the first phase,” Mokoena said at the time.
GTM said the aim was to regulate the people who are trading in town such as food vendors, barbers and vegetable sellers.
The paper also visited hawker stalls in the Praktiseer area recently and discovered they were almost complete.
Meanwhile community members highlighted it would still take some time before the stalls could be utilised.
“The contractors always fires and hires staff, it’s clear that they won’t finish soon. Sometimes the workers remain unpaid for days,” the community member who chose to remain anonymous alleged.
In April 2014 the newspaper reported that more than 20 people were fired after demanding their salaries at the Burgersfort stalls.
Mokoena asked this publication to email questions related to the stalls to him as he was on leave. He promised to reply with an update. At the time of going to print, the paper had not yet received any response.
